Wheel of Fortune: Cubed Review

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Old fashioned Wheel of Fortune suddenly falls a little flat.

What would Wheel of Fortune be like if it were a little more three dimensional? Try Wheel of Fortune: Cubed, a remixing of sorts that takes the letter- and clue-based elements from the game show and tosses them on a floating cube. There’s no Pat, no Vanna, and no cheesy conversations between contestants, but there’s still plenty of wordplay and wheel spinning!

Wheel of Fortune: Cubed keeps gameplay very simple and offers two modes to lose yourself in: solo and multiplayer. Both make use of a cube-based grid of clues and empty word tiles, and both will have you spinning the iconic wheel as often as possible. Throw in a few power-ups and some healthy player vs. player competition, and you’ve got a clever new way to get your Wheel fix.

The single player portion of Wheel of Fortune: Cubed offers puzzle after puzzle to complete at your leisure. On the screen is a floating 5×5 cube with clues written on the top and right sides. The left side of the cube holds blank tiles where you’ll construct word answers. Clues correspond to both columns and rows on the cube, forming a rudimentary crossword of sorts. Each puzzle begins with Wheel’s signature freebie letters: R, S, T, L, and N (no E, but you’ll see why). Once they’re in place, you pick three additional consonants followed by a single vowel. Lock your choices in place, then get ready to solve!

Wheel of Fortune: Cubed gives you a scant two minutes to drag and drop letters onto the grid to complete all ten words. It’s quite a challenge, especially with the time limit in place, but if you’re clever with your letter choices you shouldn’t have a rough time. After the clock strikes zero, your score is tallied and you get to take a spin on the iconic wheel for bonus points. At the end, the cash you earned is converted to tokens that are used to buy power-ups. You have to sign up for an account to save money between rounds, but if you plan on playing more than a few puzzles, it’s worth the time.

Multiplayer Wheel of Fortune: Cubed is set up more like the game show than solo mode. It starts with the same cube of clues and words, but each time a player takes a turn, he or she has the option of spinning, solving, or buying a vowel. Carefully manage your funds and try not to give the other player too much of an advantage. The first one to solve the cube (or the highest score after three turns) wins the game!

Before each round of single or multiplayer puzzle solving begins, players have the option of spending tokens to use power-ups. These range from simple letter- or word-revealing items, to the more desirable timeless mode that removes the timer and lets you play at your own pace. The power-ups feel somewhat out of place in the whole experience, almost as if the developer threw them in there along with the tokens system because mobile games are “supposed” to have them.

Wheel of Fortune: Cubed is a bit of a strange take on the Wheel of Fortune franchise, but it does manage to create a playable atmosphere with some honestly challenging puzzles to solve. The controls tend towards the awkward side, but most of the time you’ll be too busy wondering what a tree-hugging bear is and how you can spell that in five blank spaces.